Bent spine

[Link119]

I noticed that about half of my zebra or leopard Danios have a bent spine and recently a few zebras died. Is this spine issue related to the deaths possibly?

 

[Mebbid]

Most likely they are related. Bent spines are a sure sign that a fish strain has been inbred for far too long. It tends to go along with sickly fish. I have a strain of way too inbred guppies that has been slowly dying off while every other fish in my tank has been fine.

 

[Link119]

So basically im taking a crap shoot when im buying the danios? Are there any signs of imbred fish before the bent spine grows in?

 

[Mebbid]

It's the same way with any fish but thankfully it's not terribly common. The only way you can know for sure is if you know the person that bred them but at a chain store you'll never find out.

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

there's a fish spinal disease that is unfortunately fatal - Tuberculosis for fish I think? it does have treatment but by the sounds of it, you're a little late it is related to being inbred as well as other things, problem is probably most or all of them are infected. you can either start treating them, or start again :S

 

[Mebbid]

Fish TB is really quite rare and is accompanied by a host of other visual issues like loss of scales, loss of color, and wasting away.

 

[Aquena]

Can I also jump on this thread? My 2.5 year old orange glo danio has a crooked spine too. She seems healthy in every respect, although 3 weeks she was very sick along with my other normal zebra danio and my Platys (who have all recovered and are healthy again) due to a Ph drop that I've taken care of. The spine thing has been slowly getting more noticeable in the last month. I'll never buy glo-fish again. When I first bought my 6 glo fish 2.5 years ago, they did not last long, and this final orange one now is the only one that lived so long. She is still feisty and playful, but looks sort of handicapped.

 

[Aquena]

Can I also jump on this thread? My 2.5 year old orange glo danio has a crooked spine too. She seems healthy in every respect, although 3 weeks she was very sick along with my other normal zebra danio and my Platys (who have all recovered and are healthy again) due to a Ph drop that I've taken care of. The spine thing has been slowly getting more noticeable in the last month. I'll never buy glo-fish again. When I first bought my 6 glo fish 2.5 years ago, they did not last long, and this final orange one now is the only one that lived so long. She is still feisty and playful, but looks sort of handicapped.

I meant to say "3 Weeks Ago" they got sick. We're treated immediately and responded to treatment almost instantly.

 

[Link119]

It's the same way with any fish but thankfully it's not terribly common. The only way you can know for sure is if you know the person that bred them but at a chain store you'll never find out.

I've had this problem with many Danios in the past and all of which were bought at the local petco so I guess that my problem is probably this specific seller. I do have a Petsmart a little father down the road but the tanks look to be much healthier in general.

 

[AngelFishGirl]

This was the poor fish at the LFS that I snatched up. she looked so sad.
Despite her spine looking so terribly messed up, she lived a pretty good while and truthfully, she had the brightest personality of all of my platies!
EDIT: she's the orange one, not red